Pac-Mania

Pac-Mania is a new spin on the original Pac-Man game (and 10th in the franchise) and was developed and published by Namco in 1987 for arcades. In 1988 it was ported to multiple home platforms, including C64, MSX, Atari ST, and ZX Spectrum.

The Amiga version, created by Teque for Namco, is considered the best. For some users, even better than the arcade.

The basic premise remains intact; playing as Pac-Man, you run around a maze munching those dots while avoiding ghosts. Pac-Mania features levels that take place in four different environments with different layouts. Unlike the original, the maze is bigger than the screen, and the background scrolls, keeping our hero at the center of the view.

More than the standard four ghosts can be present during a level, making the game more challenging. The ghosts also have new behaviors that make them more challenging to go up against. Pac-Man has now gained the ability to jump, which makes avoiding those extra ghosts a little easier. But be careful as there are a pair of new ghosts who also have this ability. Pac-Mania and most of its ports got positive reviews, with the Amiga version taking home a couple of awards. It doesn’t get much more classic than Pac-Man, and this version is a nice revamp of the series.